IRON COUNTY, UTAH — Opened in 1987, the Iron County Jail is the oldest jail in Utah.
“If it was a horse, I'd shoot it and it'd be dead and we'd be done with it,” said Sheriff Ken Carpenter. “Our basement is essentially level with the sewer line, so if it rains hard and the sewer fills up, then we have sewer that backs up into the basement of the jail. We have issues with just the age of our equipment, our heating and ventilation and air conditioning.”
A $90 million dollar bond to build a new jail is on the ballot for Iron County voters this year. If approved, the county will raise property taxes by $153 a year.
“It's just come down to, we've got to have it,” said Commissioner Mike Bleak. “It's not a want, it's a need.”
The infrastructure has made the building impossible to repair or remodel, said Sheriff Carpenter.
“We've literally turned every additional space that we have available, storage closets we've turned into housing areas, our gymnasium we've turned into housing areas,” he said.
The jail was designed for four female inmates; currently, it houses anywhere from 24 to 40. There’s not enough room, and officials are constantly petitioning for inmates’ early releases, said Bleak.
“A lot of people who commit crimes because they know that they're not going to jail, they know that the consequence of incarceration isn't there, and so I guess it's, you've got to decide what's the acceptable crime limit on our streets,” he said.
The new jail would go on a 15-acre plot of land near the Cedar City Airport. There would be two pods and a new sheriff’s complex. The jail could house around 370-415 contract inmates, offenders from other counties or states, which the county says would bring in millions of dollars in revenue.
Brad Green, a local business owner, says it Isn’t worth the blow to property owners, especially retired people on fixed incomes.
“They hope to be able to get enough contract inmates to pay the mortgage on the bond, and that's risky,” he said. “It's a significant hit to how long they can live on the money that they have, and what they see that is that they either have to die earlier now, like, they almost have to plan to die earlier, or they have to cut their lifestyle back so that the remaining years they have left are less meaningful.”
County officials say a new jail would reduce crime, but some residents think it would actually bring in more.
“Right now, Iron County is experiencing unbelievable growth as it is, and if we bring criminal element in and house it in the jail, then when they get released, guess where they are? They're right here with us,” said Douglas Fox, a Parowan resident.
Douglas Fox is most worried about the future of the residents in small towns like Parowan, he said.
“They're just not going to be able to afford it,” he said. “And so what would happen is if it did pass, we would see a lot of foreclosures. You know, we find other people moving in that have money, so we would lose the culture that we currently have here, these poor people that are on fixed incomes. I'm close to it.”
The Iron County Commission has hosted multiple information meetings leading up to the jail bond vote on Tuesday, November 21.
